The Infinite Heart
A Journey Into the Teachings of 150 Great
Mystics, Masters, Poets and Saints
WEEK ONE: Friday
All right. Let’s finish up our story of the Light beings moving into form. Now, with each new level that was encountered, some chose to stay and others chose to continue exploring more dense levels.
Like some kind of giant elevator going down. And at each level of reality, some get off and some stay on to keep going into heavier levels. And maybe there’s some elevator man saying “Fourth floor: angels. Celestial beings. And members of the heavenly choir. Third floor: ghosts. Wayward spirits. And parasitic entities. Second floor: leprechauns and elves and plant and animal spirits. First floor: Humans. This one’s still under construction, folks, so enter at your own risk.”
But you forgot the basement.
The basement? Suddenly my neck hairs are standing straight up. Which is pretty wild since they’re on the floor of that barber shop I went to this morning. Anyway, whatever’s in this basement, I get the feeling it’s not a very popular floor.
You’re right. When that elevator door opens, there is a deep sense of knowing that to step onto that floor is to enter the coldest and darkest of worlds.
Must be the same floor my dentist is on. So why would anyone go there?
Let’s picture the scene this way: Imagine this pilgrimage of souls as a great journey into a new world, where all along the way, some pioneers settled and others kept exploring farther and farther in. These explorers kept journeying through heavier and heavier worlds, including our own, until they came upon a great barrier. As they approached it, a strong sense of fear and foreboding arose within them, greater than they had ever experienced before. They intuited that if they crossed this barrier, they would enter into a level of existence so heavy, so dense, so dark and so cold that all remaining awareness of the eternal spark of Essence within them would be extinguished. Yes, the spark itself would remain. But if they entered into the layer beyond this barrier, the shell they would take on would be so heavy and dense and shielded and impenetrable that they would not be able to see through it, even momentarily, into their True Self. They would lose all awareness of Essence. To cross that barrier would be to lock themselves into an inescapable vault, dark and cold, with no door from the inside, and with only a vague, distorted memory that such things as light, warmth, joy and love ever existed.
The thought of such an existence sent waves of terror, anguish and grief through these explorers. To be so far from Home, so far from Pure Being, so far from their True Nature that they would lose all awareness of it, this was unimaginable. How would one find one’s way in the darkness? How would one be fed? How would one know Truth? And how would one ever, ever get back?
But even that place would actually be in Pure Essence, made out of Pure Essence, right? So they wouldn’t really be separated. It would just feel like it.
Yes. Nothing can ever be separate from or outside of the Light. We are always in the Light. In that sense, we’re always enlightened. But to be completely and continuously aware of our enlightenment, to unceasingly realize our True Self, that is Self realization. As you well know, this can be most elusive in our heavy level of reality. The Pure Spark within is usually quite buried, its presence seldom felt. But on the other side of that great barrier was a level even heavier and more dense than our own. Yes, that place was still within the Ocean of Essence, and it was made of the purest water. But it’s as though its water had frozen into walls of ice. Thick, dark, heavy and impenetrable.
And as these pioneer souls stood at this great barrier, sensing the desolate darkness before them, the most terrifying question they could imagine arose from deep within their hearts and reverberated throughout their being. “Who will go?”
Bummer.
There was a long, heavy silence as the full impact of the question rippled through them. To be completely cut off from all awareness of Light, to be hopelessly lost in the heaviness of absolute darkness, To be locked inside a cold and barren deadness in which there could be no love, no peace, no safety, no comfort, and no joy. They looked within themselves, felt their unwillingness to make such a sacrifice, and then looked at each other, hoping one of the others would be brave and selfless enough to volunteer.
But I don’t get it. If it was going to be so terrible, why would someone be asked to go?
Remember that Essence was overflowing with superabundant creative energy, which led to the creation of structure and structural reality. Endlessly overflowing with itself, Essence then imbued the world of structure with Pure Essence, which we also might call Pure Awareness. Solness. This Solness flowed into created reality like rays of the sun reaching dark and distant planets, bathing them with light. These rays of Pure Awareness can be thought of as conscious rays of the One Light.
Light beings. Souls.
Right. Now as we have said, in order for souls to experience existence on the various levels of created reality, they must take on a shell of the same density as that level. But despite their heavy cloaks, they still bring Pure Awareness into the world of structure, even if in the heavier levels it’s usually hiding deep within their shells. The Pearl beyond price, waiting to be re-discovered.
So, instead of Essence just creating a world of structure that is experientially completely separate from Essence, and leaving it at that, it also created a means for Pure Essence to enter structural reality– to interact and play and create and explore. It created a way to, in a sense, infiltrate the world of structure. To breathe Life into it. To in-spire it. To imbue it with the Pure Awareness inherent within every being. Are you with me so far?
Every moment I’m clearer than the next.
The sun doesn’t only select certain planets to send its rays of light to. They can’t help but go out to every planet, no matter how far away, no matter how cold or desolate. Likewise, Sol doesn’t pick and choose which levels of structural reality to bathe with its rays of Essence. Pure Awareness enters every level of created reality, no matter how heavy, no matter how barren, no matter how cold, no matter how hardened.
So, in the beginning was the Light. And the Light, overflowing with itself, transformed some of itself into energetic patterns and structures with which it created a myriad of structural worlds. And then the Light sent conscious sparks of its Pure Self into each of these worlds, including the heaviest, most dense levels. These sparks took on heavy shells around them in order to be in these worlds, and then came to believe they were the shells, forgetting their True Nature.
That much I get.
Now, because all structures and all shells are temporary, every spark is destined to eventually re-member Pure Essence. But the potential is there for every Light being to realize fully its oneness with Essence while still wearing its shell. Awakening is a guarantee. A foregone conclusion. But to fully realize the Pure Self while experiencing existence as a living being in created reality, to fully live within the depths of the Eternal Now, imbuing each moment with the Nectarous Breath of Pure Life– that is the possibility! Enlightenment is an eventual certainty. Enlivenment– that is the challenge!
* * * * * *
Now, back to the great barrier, and to the question, “Who will go?” The explorers waited in the heavy silence, desperately hoping that one of the others would volunteer. And then, finally, they heard a voice among them say softly, “I will go.” The group looked around to see who had spoken. One of the Light beings took a step towards the great barrier, turned around to face the others, and said again, “I will go.”
The others felt both a sense of intense relief and utter amazement. They said “But don’t you understand? Can’t you feel what lies behind the barrier? Inescapable blackness! Complete forgetting! You will lose all awareness of Truth! Of Love! Of what you truly are! The Pure Center within you, the Home that will always be waiting for you, you will forget it all! Already, in these heavy worlds we must struggle not to lose conscious awareness of our True Essence. You know how quickly it fades. But in that dark place all remembrance, all hope, all warmth, all love, all peace, all Nectar will be completely erased from your awareness. Can’t you feel the ruthless emptiness that awaits you? Can’t you see what this will mean?”
I’d be thinking “Shut up before you talk the fool out of it!” So what did the masochist, I mean, the brave volunteer say?
Not brave. Just completely uncompromising in serving Truth.
So what did the completely uncompromising servant of Truth with masochistic tendencies say?
“I’ve never known the fear I feel right now. The loneliness. The sorrow. For I must lose contact with that which I love most dearly. I must leave that which I give my life to. I must sever the loving ray that reminds me that my essence is the Essence, that in the center of my heart is Home. I love the Infinite Heart with all that I am. I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to live in fear instead of Love. In darkness instead of Light. In confusion instead of Truth. I was so at peace, so fulfilled before this journey ever began. Just being a simple spark of the One Sun, resting in its Silent Center. But when the Rainbow Gateway appeared, and the question arose, ‘Who will go?’, how could I do anything but serve what I love? And now, here, standing before this great barrier, the question arises again. ‘Who will go?’ How can I do anything but serve my Beloved? No matter the sacrifice. No matter the pain.
“And even though I will soon forget, in this moment I know that nothing can extinguish the eternal Spark of Truth within me. No matter how lost I become, how confused, how fearful, how alone, how desperate, or how bitter, the inner Light hiding within my heavy skins will always be one with the One Light. How could it ever be otherwise? And so, I will go.
“Dear friends, I don’t know what I will believe or think or do once I forget. I don’t know what food I will settle for in a futile attempt to replace the flow of Pure Nectar that I will no longer be able to find. From such a lost and anguished place, I may even create pain and anguish for other beings. Please, whatever happens, I beg you. Don’t forget my True Self.”
“Don’t worry,” one of the others said. “We know your Pure Soul. Even if it becomes lost to you, it will never be lost to us. We will always know the truth of your being, until the day you return to the center of the Sun, and melt back into your Self.”
Another Light being said “But this door into the blackness, it opens only from the outside. Once you enter, how will you ever get out?”
“That, my friends, will be up to you. My only chance to know freedom again is if one day others find a way to open the door for me, to let my heart feel the sun again. Until then, goodbye, dear friends. Thank you for remembering my Pure Heart. Even if I do not.” Then he walked through, and the door sealed behind him. And as you and I and all the others watched him disappear into the suffocating blackness, so long ago, we made a promise that we would never forget his True Nature. That we would never forget his Pure Being. And that one day we would find a way to set him free, and guide him Home.
This Light being has been known by many names. One of them, which means bearer of light, is Lucifer. Whatever name he is called, from this perspective he was not a fallen angel. He volunteered. Selflessly. When no one else would. And he still awaits for the door of remembrance to be opened for him.
All right, you got me. Here I am feeling sorry for the poor soul and it turns out to be Lucifer? I should have seen it coming. You actually got me to feel compassion for the poor devil.
Good. Just imagine living in a world with no hope, no love, no Light, no Truth, no peace, no joy, no comfort, no rest and no escape. And no memory that any of those things even exist.
It’s called rush hour.
Just try to imagine it. The darkness, the anguish, the suffering, the endless fear. It would be so hard for any being to bear. So it’s no surprise that in such a dark and delusional state he has covered up his pain and fear and confusion with the metallic armor of bitterness, hate, vengefulness and destructiveness. But in the center of those thick layers rests his True Self, a pure spark of the One Sun.
You definitely bring new meaning to the term “devil’s advocate”.
My friend, we’re all sparks of the Divine. Henry Suso wrote “All creatures have existed eternally in the divine essence… All beings were, before their creation, one thing with the essence of God. Eternally, all creatures are God in God… So far as they are in God, they are the same life, the same essence, the same power, the same One, and nothing less.” And the Srimad Bhagavatam, a Hindu text written around the fourth century, says “Learn to look with an equal eye upon all beings, seeing the one Self in all.” And the fourteenth century theologian, Thomas Aquinas, wrote “Since God is the universal cause of all being, in whatever region being can be found, there must be Divine Presence.” None of us has ever been banished from the Heart of God. That Heart is infinite. We have only chosen to turn our backs to the Eternal Flame, and so our faces feel the cold, lonely, frightening night.
It’s never occurred to me to have compassion for Lucifer. And to be honest with you, I’m not exactly sold on the idea. Are you talking about him as a real, literal being or just as a metaphor for evil?
It doesn’t matter which way you see it. If Lucifer is a real being, he is a being that came from God and somewhere in his very center there is that which remains one with God. His original innocence is still within him, but covered over by thick, thick skins of distortion and desire and greed and hatred. If that is the case, why would we not wish that he could shed his heavy dragon skins and become again an innocent child, resting his head once more on the Heart of God? And if he is only a mythical being, then if we are able to feel compassion for the very personification of evil, for that which represents the darkest, cruelest part of consciousness, we can surely find some compassion for every human Light being, no matter what terrible things they have done, no matter how lost they have become. No matter how confused, no matter how endarkened.
The eighteenth century rabbi, Schmelke of Nikolsburg, was once asked how we can possibly love those who are wicked. He said “Don’t you know that the original soul came out of the essence of God, and that every human soul is part of God? And will you have no mercy on Him, when you see that one of His holy sparks has been lost in a maze, and is almost stifled?” Every spark is precious, regardless of the costume in which it is hidden.
Listen to Angela of Foligno: “He is present in every creature and in everything that hath being, as much in demons as in good angels, in hell as in paradise, in adultery and murder, in all good works, and in all things which exist, both beauteous and ill-favored. When I have this unity, therefore, I do rejoice into God no less when I see a bad angel and an evil deed than when I see a good angel or deed.”
But time out. Back up a minute. You never answered my question. You don’t mean that stuff about Lucifer literally, right? I mean, I just can’t believe there’s really some great, powerful, evil entity out there that’s trying to take over the universe. Unless you count fast food chains. But then again, I wouldn’t bet my soul he doesn’t exist. Just in case. I mean, a good soul is so hard to replace these days.
I’m less interested in facts than truth. I don’t happen to believe that Lucifer exists as an actual being. But it doesn’t matter to me either way. The truth is the same.
What truth?
Every one of us has closed down many times, to varying degrees. And the more closed we are, the more we tend to hurt ourselves and others. If we can recognize the Pure Heart buried so deeply within Lucifer, then we can recognize the Pure Heart in all beings who are responding to suffering by closing down, including ourselves. And since there are different degrees of contraction, there must be some beings that, at least for now, are much more contracted than most other beings. And perhaps there is one being that is, at least in this moment, more contracted, more closed, more desperate and more distorted than any other being in existence. Does that much seem plausible?
Yeah.
And if that’s the case, that being would probably be more greedy and selfish and confused and even more destructive and rageful and ruthless than any other being that exists. So we could think of that being, whoever it may be in this moment, regardless of whether they’ve been this way for moments or eons, as being like Lucifer. A bearer of Light that has become trapped within great suffering. A fellow soul, who’s Pure Heart has become buried deep beneath the ice. And through our own opening, we can help it thaw. For me, the image of Lucifer becoming trapped in hell, and us freeing him, is about us letting our hearts become an open doorway through which the Pure Nectar of Essence can flow into the world, sending to every closed, hiding, bitter, frightened, lifeless, frozen rose a tiny whiff of the soft fragrance of Spring.
Hafiz said “How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light against its Being. Otherwise, we all remain too frightened.”
I think I see what you’re saying, and I can go along with it except for the name, Lucifer. For me, that just has way too strong of a negative connotation. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but the truth is, I’m not even very comfortable saying that name.
That’s exactly the point. It brings to light the places within us where we would withhold love. It shows us the lines we draw, where we say “I’m willing to have unconditional love for all beings. As long as they meet these conditions.”
Well I admit it. I still have my conditions. I can embrace having compassion and love for whatever Light being happens to be the most lost right now. But even if it’s just semantics, I just don’t feel ready to go along with feeling love and compassion for Satan. So if you want me to go along with you on this one, we’re going to have to use a different term. Like maybe “the most lost Light being” or something.
All right. So let’s look at what it really is that’s trapping this most lost soul. For to a lesser degree, it’s exactly what’s trapping us. It might be a bit early to go into this, so don’t worry if it gets confusing. It should make more sense in a few days.
* * * * * *
So this most lost being entered the darkest, coldest, most painful of experiences, in which all awareness of Home disappeared. But it wasn’t being in that place that closed him off from Pure Being. No darkness or pain or hell could ever take us away from Essence. Nothing that happens on the surface could ever in any way cause a chasm between our consciousness and Pure Consciousness. How can any structure have any real effect on Structurelessness? So it wasn’t being in this hell that separated his consciousness from the Divine.
Man, it’s really sad that you get this far along in life and then suddenly you completely lose it. Don’t worry. I’ll cover for you. If anyone asks, I’ll just say, “How can we expect to understand someone as great as he is?” They’ll probably buy that one. At least until it gets worse.
Pure Being is a way of being. It has no preconditions, no requirements of form that must be met first. Oneness with God can happen anywhere. But only one way. That way is a way of completely allowing whatever is present in this moment to fully be as it is, without the slightest inner resistance. That way is one of endlessly falling through this moment, without ever stopping or slowing or repositioning to avoid approaching turbulence. That way is one of letting yourself completely relax all the holding yourself together, even if it means that all you thought you were completely dissolves away into an undefinable Vastness, like a snow flake melting into the Ocean.
Hang on a minute. A big red flag goes up when I hear someone say there’s only one way to God. I mean, what if it gets closed for repairs?
This is an important clarification. As we will discuss, the only way to merge with Essence is to have the same way of being as Essence. That way of being, in which you are completely broken open, completely surrendered, completely allowing yourself to free fall into whatever is arising in this Living Moment, is the only way of being that matches Pure Being, and so it is the only way to Pure Being. But there are endless ways this can look on the outside. Surrendering to the Formless can take a great many forms.
I guess that makes sense. There’s a lot of paths up the mountain but there’s still only one way. Up.
Now then, back to our long lost friend,–
–Hey, he’s not my friend. I just met him at a party once.
In any case, once he stepped through the doorway, into that heaviest darkness, he could no longer perceive Pure Nectar with the senses of his form. He was no longer able to feel it or see it or taste it. It felt to him exactly as though he was in a place where Truth could not be. A place that Truth could never find. But no form could ever keep out the Formless. No structures could ever capture and hold consciousness without its participation and consent.
What do you mean by consent?
Form is more dense than awareness. So form cannot grasp onto it. Only consciousness can grasp onto form. So in truth, when the most lost Light being first entered that place, he was still resting in the Infinite, All Encompassing Heart of God. His consciousness was still resting in Pure Consciousness. In spite of all indications to the contrary, there was no separation.
But it sounds like there was a pretty convincing experience of it.
Right. As his consciousness began experiencing this extremely dark and dense world, for the first time he completely lost his ability to experience all of the wonderful, blissful, peaceful, loving sensations that had always pulsed through his soul from the moment it was born out of the Unborn Oneness of the Absolute. For the first time, he could not feel the Sunshine. He could not feel the safe arms of God around him. He could not feel the Divine Breath flowing through him. For the first time, he could not experience the Divine Heart in which his being was resting. He had had moments of briefly losing awareness of these experiences before, but he had only to more fully rest his awareness in the Vibrant Pulse of the Living Flow and they would all come back. But now he couldn’t find the faintest sign that he was still in the Infinite Heart of God. That he had not been completely abandoned. That he was not trapped in endarkenment forever.
We can imagine how agonizing and terrible this would be. And most of us have experienced it to some extent. Suddenly, every one of your senses is experiencing a cold, dark, empty, palpable absence of anything True and Real and Pure and Loving and Nectarous. Every sense and perception you have tells you that Pure Love has left you, that you are trapped in a place God’s arms cannot reach. This is the darkest night of the soul. When the Sunshine cannot be found anywhere. It seems you are lost forever in a Godless place. Full of pain and anguish and emptiness and darkness.
And so, very understandably, for the first time, he pushed out his hands against the agonizing flow of the Living Moment, and said “NO! I cannot live in this torture! I cannot live in this Godlessness! I cannot live in this total absence of all that is Good and Pure and Alive and Real and Gentle and Loving and True! I will not lay my head in this moment! I will not rest my heart in what is! I will not let myself fall any farther into this eternal, endless, hopeless hell! I WANT MORE! And I will push and pull and shake and yell and fight until I have more! Until I am out of this God forsaken place! Until I am once more in the arms of God!”
I guess you can’t blame him. I’m sure I would do the same thing.
We all have, to a lesser degree. So it was in that moment, and not any sooner, that his way of being changed from resting to resisting. From falling to fighting. From allowing to armoring.
From loving to loathing. From flying to frying. From harp playing to harpooning. From surrendering to seriously screwing some strongly susceptible souls.
And in that instant, rather than remaining tender and open and letting the Pure Flow of the Living Moment be just as it is, he sought to change it, to make it less agonizing. The well-being of this form with which his spark of Pure Consciousness was identified became more important to him than resting in Truth. What he was experiencing became more important than what is Real. In trying to experience God again, to find relief from the agony, he became his own master. With his own agendas, his own hopes, his own plans. Rather than continuing to fall into the Flow of Being, he began pushing against it. And it was in that instant of trying to push away the terrible waves of pain flowing through him that he first pushed away God.
He’s been fighting ever since to protect himself from hell and to break out of it. And the more skins he covers himself with to numb the pain, the more of him there is that he believes he must feed and protect. And so the more separation there is between his consciousness and Pure Consciousness. Between his way of being and the Flow of Pure Being.
And you say we’ve all done the same thing to a lesser degree?
Yes. Even though there are vastly different situations that create within us the experience of some degree of hell, they all tend to create the same reactions in us. Feelings of grief, self pity, anger and even rage pour from us. We feel a knowing deep within that this is not how things are supposed to be. We feel lost and hopeless. Cheated and betrayed. It is no god of love that would do such a thing to us! We feel alone and helpless and trapped and bitter and forsaken. With all of these feelings comes a strong resistance to what is happening, a shutting down of the Present Flow. The pain of hell just feels like too much to let in. So we hide deep inside and cover ourselves over with thick, cold, callous skins. And since we feel the absence of Pure Nectar within us, we search desperately outside ourselves for any kind of substitute.
Absence makes the heart go wander.
But nothing truly satisfies us. We become more and more desperate, more and more lustful for something to quench our longing. But we can only look outside ourselves, since we have stifled the Pure Spring within. We can only find fool’s gold. We see its glitter, we grab it, we taste it, but we find it completely void of any Pure Nectar. As the twentieth century Sufi master Bhai Sahib put it, “Only the Perfect can satisfy us.”
I’m getting the image of a humming bird trying to sustain itself on Splenda. It can drink all it wants, but it won’t get what it needs. Poor little guy. I remember up at the family cabin we used to go to when I was a kid, we had humming bird feeders on the porch, and sometimes when they were drinking, we would slowly reach out our finger towards them. Usually they would either fly away or just keep drinking and maneuver away from it. But now and then they would actually stop flying and just perch on it for a while. It was really amazing to have this tiny, fragile, beautiful bird trust you like that, with its tiny little feet perched on your finger, drinking away. And then there was the night I stepped out onto the porch, turned on the light, and not 3 feet in front of me, right on the porch, there was a bear, up on its hind legs, trying to drink from the feeder.
Did you try to get it to perch on your finger?
Yeah, right. Actually, as I recall, I was too busy waiting to see if my heart would start beating again. You’ll be relieved to know it finally did. Anyway, go ahead.
So, the way we respond is exactly the same as the most lost soul. Our way of being becomes exactly the same as his way of being. One of pushing and pulling and grasping and fighting to get what we want instead of simply resting our hearts in the Living Flow of Pure Being. The only difference is in the degree. If he had only been subjected to the degree of hell that we have experienced, he would’ve only reacted as much as we have. And if we had been subjected to the same degree of anguish that he has felt, we almost certainly would have closed down and covered over and acted out in cold, bitter, needy, lustful anger just as much as he has. In this sense, we are no better than he is. Only more fortunate. “There but for the Grace of God go I.”
Damn! Those are some pretty harsh words! That we’re no better than the worst being that’s ever lived!
We are exactly like him, in two ways: First, the Center of our heart is pure and beautiful and untainted and inseparable from the Heart of God. And second, we’ve turned our backs from that Center, hoping to find a way to use life for us instead of letting Pure Life live through us. That’s something we’ll speak more of in the next two weeks.
So no matter how far a being strays, no matter how lost or closed down, that pure center is always inside? We can’t ever lose it?
Isn’t it beautiful? No matter how thick and tainted the shell becomes, the pearl is always pure. And it rests within every being, waiting to be uncovered. The Center of the soul can never be ruined. Remember Aslan, tearing into that thick dragon skin with his awesome claws, clearing away layer after layer from Eustace, the innocent child trapped within.
That would be a handy set of claws.
I suppose that depends on whether you believe yourself to be the dragon or the child.
Good point.
But while Aslan can use his divine claws to tenderly tear away the shells of others, we mere mortals must use a different, softer approach in helping the Pure Spark to be exposed.
There’s a hidden zipper in the back?
Not that I’m aware of.
Damn. That would’ve been a nice feature.
When we’re identified with the dragon, we’re not very likely to allow ourselves to be unzipped, peeled off and cast aside by a mere mortal. When we feel threatened and attacked, we naturally strengthen our armor and prepare to fight back. So we cannot force another person to remove their armor, nor can we remove it for them.
So what’s the softer approach?
* * * * * *
We can imagine the protective shell as made of ice. So thick and cold, due the continuous pressure that holds it together, that the softly glowing ember of Essence in its center is unable to melt it. Think of a flickering candle flame glowing in a tiny cave deep within an iceberg. When we look at another person, or when we think of them, we habitually see them as the costume, the dragon, the frozen shell that their True Self wears. We believe that costume is what they are. Now there is certainly wisdom in being aware of that aspect of their being. If a big angry dragon is stomping towards you, it is a good idea to notice it and get out of the way. And if you are cornered, perhaps you will even choose to draw your sword if that feels true. But when we limit our perception to the costume, when this is all we see, we reinforce the illusion that this is what they truly are.
But another possibility exists. That of simply allowing ourselves to see their True Nature. Allowing ourselves to remember that beneath their armored shell is a struggling spark of Light, lost, confused and longing for Home. Letting our heart open. Experiencing the truth that they are a kindred soul, struggling to stay afloat in the tumultuous waves of structural reality. They too long to return to Love, Security, Peace, Joy and Wholeness. They too long for Home, even if they have forgotten it exists.
And then letting ourselves see that beneath all their layers, beneath their outer shell, beneath their distortions, beneath the confusion and pain and longing of a Light being lost in the maze, is a pure, perfect, free, unwoundable, dazzling spark of Essence, dancing in the One Flame.
That’s definitely a different way of seeing things.
When we are able to behold someone’s True Self, a wonderful, miraculous thing can happen. The eighteenth century Rabbi, Dov Baer of Mezritch, said “When you gaze at an object, you bring blessing to it. For through contemplation, you know that it is absolutely nothing without the divinity that permeates it. By means of this awareness, you draw greater vitality to the object from the divine source of life, since you bind that thing to absolute nothingness, the origin of all.” When we gaze through someone’s shell into their Real Being, their stifled spark of Light begins to awaken, to pulsate, to brighten, even if only slightly at first. It vibrates and resonates with the Pure Heart within us that recognizes it– for they are the same Heart. Only Essence can recognize Essence.
You lost me.
Form can only experience form. Structure cannot experience Structurelessness. The only part of a being that can recognize Pure Being is Pure Being itself. Ibn Arabi wrote “When my Beloved appears, with what eye do I see Him? With His eye, not with mine; for no one sees Him except Himself.” Or as Bawa Muhaiyaddeen put it, “It is Allah who must worship Allah.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
Form can only worship the Divine from a distance. As something separate and other. But pure worshipping is a merging in which your greatest Beloved is directly and intimately known. Only your Essence can directly know Essence. So only Essence can purely worship Essence.
So you’re saying that the more common kinds of worship, practiced by, oh, maybe ninety percent of the Earth’s population, are impure? Man, you’re on a roll here! You’re knocking over sacred cows left and right.
Maybe it’s still too early to go further into this.
Come on. Like you said yesterday, even if I don’t agree with you, I can still have the maturity to at least openly hear your incorrect perspective. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to stomp off and run to my mommy. She got a restraining order. So are you really saying that the normal ways people worship are impure?
I’m not saying the usual ways are bad or wrong. They can be a beautiful rekindling of the longing within our hearts to be Home. To be reunited with the Divine. But as long as we are worshipping the Divine as up there, as long as we perceive the slightest distance between lover and Beloved, we are saying the Divine is not already right here, flowing through this very moment and through our very hearts. And a god that is not absolutely and completely right here and right now is not an infinite god. It is a limited, finite god.
So now you’re saying practically everyone is worshipping the wrong god? Or I guess if you count Hindus, the wrong gods? So in the last five minutes, you’ve said we’re no better than the worst being in existence, any worshipping we do is impure, and any god we worship is not really God! Two words: Bulletproof vest! With a matching bullet proof shirt and tie. I mean, there might be one or two people that wouldn’t be offended by any of that!
Do you understand what I mean about how our way of pushing away and closing off Truth is the same as the most lost soul’s, it’s just not to the same extent?
Yeah, I think so.
Good. Then let’s look at the other two scandalous items. By the way, for what it’s worth, Hindus believe in many deities, but in one Formless Godhead. They believe there are many different facets of that One Pure Diamond, but there is only one Brahman, the Pure, Formless, Uncreated Godhead. The Pure Divine.
Hey, ask me what a Hindu is.
All right. What’s a Hindu?
Lays eggs. But my question is, you’re saying we’re all impurely worshipping the wrong god?
It’s not that we’re worshipping the wrong god. We’re just underestimating God. We keep placing limits and boundaries around the Divine when there are none. We just can’t believe the Divine is so close to us that in spite of our convincing perceptions, there isn’t ever the slightest separation.
Remember Saint Teresa: “At first… I did not know that God was in all things. And when He seemed to me to be so near, I thought it impossible.” And the Sufi, Iraqi: “Beloved, I sought You here and there, asked for news of You from all I met. Then I saw You through myself, and found we were identical.”
Now this does not mean the form of our mind and body is Untainted Divinity. It means the center of our heart and the center of God’s heart is the same Untainted Center. The Heart of Innocence within the heart of every being is Pure Being. Emerson wrote “The heart in thee is the Heart of all.” And so anytime we worship the Divine as something other, something separate, it is a misconception. It’s not the purest form of worship. The purest worship is when we are directly and intimately knowing the Divine. But only the Original Spark within us can know the Infinite Flame. Only our Pure Center can know the Pure Center. Only Essence can merge with Essence. Only Allah can worship Allah. We’ll talk more about this, but for now I want to return to seeing through someone’s costume into their True Nature.
Okay, but first some quick feedback from the guinea pig: Maybe you should cut back a little with knocking over all the sacred cows. I mean, if you say things like that at your talks, people will just walk out before you get a chance to explain. Maybe you’ve forgotten how completely outrageous some of this stuff sounds at first! It can really get people to put up walls. And if you could avoid that in some cases by just explaining it a little more gently, then why not? I’m not trying to be a jerk here, not that I have to try. I’m just giving you my honest opinion.
Your honest opinion is always welcome.
Okay, then you could lighten up a little too. You seem kind of stiff and dry most of the time. And you don’t seem to appreciate a good joke when you hear one.
I love a good joke. I just haven’t heard any recently. So does it feel like my heart is heavy and stiff and serious?
No, actually. That’s what’s kind of weird. Your heart seems pretty light and relaxed somehow. Like you’re in on some big joke that I don’t know about yet. It feels kind of like your eyes are always smiling. But your personality is a little– and I hope you don’t take this in the way it’s intended– but it’s a little boring and formal and serious most of the time. Nothing flashy, aside from the hundred gigabyte memory. You kind of remind me of my dad when he would help me with my homework. He was really serious about it, and he used to get frustrated sometimes with the way I wouldn’t stay focused and pay attention. The Ritalin really worked wonders though. He took it regularly.
My personality has always tended to be serious most of the time. But the predispositions of the surface personality don’t affect or interfere with being light-hearted within. And in this case, my mind is probably even more focused than usual, because we have so much to talk about and not much time to do it.
So to respond to your feedback, I’m sure I could be more delicate about how I introduce some of these ideas. But at the same time, when tightly held beliefs are threatened, there’s going to be agitation. That agitation is a good sign. Things are getting shaken up. And people who aren’t willing to have their world shaken, at least a little, can best protect their beliefs by staying away from anyone who might say something challenging.
What if your beliefs are already pretty much right?
The question isn’t so much whether your beliefs are accurate, but how tightly you hold onto them. It’s fine to have a weightless belief floating around above you, whether it’s accurate or not. But to try to use a belief as part of the foundation on which you stand, that creates an investment in it remaining untouched. Because if it goes, your whole foundation begins to give, and you don’t have anything to stand on anymore, until you throw together another belief. So even if your beliefs are fairly accurate representations of reality, if you are depending on them in any way to somehow hold your life together, you’re depending on something, that you have to hold together, to serve as what holds you together. You’re trying to stand on something that you have to hold up. It’s a precarious situation, which is why you instinctively know you have to protect your beliefs so tightly.
* * * * * *
All right. So let’s get back to what happens when we behold someone’s True Nature. That Pure Pearl of Essence hidden deep within them begins to sparkle and glow, and the thick layers of ice around it begin to thin and melt, even if only a little. Their armor can loosen, their defenses can relax, their heart can begin to open and their Light can begin to shine. Sometimes no change is perceptible and sometimes the change is profound. But regardless, the beauty of this way of seeing another is that it helps to permanently and deeply change our perception of the other person. We can never again muster quite the same amount of judgment or dislike for them we might have once had. There is irretractable compassion for their unique spark, even if there is also a strong awareness that their behavior is completely unacceptable.
This way of perceiving another is natural and spontaneous when one is Self realized. This is why it can be so powerful to be in the presence of one who is awake. They so clearly see your True Nature, and your spark turns into a brilliant flame in resonance and remembrance. The Eastern tradition of having darshan with a master is based on this. The master gazes into the eyes of the seeker, and the seeker’s own Essence is unveiled. Of course, the tendency is to believe the teacher is giving you something and you are receiving it. In truth, the master is only seeing you and being with you as you really are. The energy, the bliss, the opening, and the melting that can be experienced from this is primarily generated within your Self, as the sleeping embers start to burst into flames and the icy shell begins to melt into Flowing Liquid Sunshine. I call this beautiful way of beholding another being “the gaze of the Heart”. As the fox told the Little Prince, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.” The gaze of the Heart is one of the greatest gifts that can be given to others and to ourselves. Because only Essence can perceive Essence, when we behold another person as they truly are, we simultaneously increase our connection with our own True Nature as well as with theirs.
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen wrote “The One born as Man must know who He is. The earth, fire, air, water, ether and their various aspects must be seen and known. Then there is the Light of the Soul. Discard all the rest and see It.” The gaze of the Heart helps us to perceive this Light of the Soul, even in those towards whom we feel strong negative feelings.
So how do we do it?
This precious gift is not one that we can do. It’s not something that we can possess and then give away. So quickly the mind thinks, “Look what I can do for someone else! I must be very spiritually evolved! What power I have!” Then this mind that is trying to do someone else a favor with a nice little trick it has learned will be left alone, looking for Essence, wondering where it has gone. The mind cannot find Essence, hold Essence, own Essence or use Essence. It can only resist it or bow down and serve it. When the mind is master, the soul sleeps. When the soul is master, the mind serves. And when the soul is servant, there is only Essence, dancing with Essence, in praise of Essence.
So, we cannot give someone the experience of Essence any more than we can make the sun shine on them. But when we deeply perceive them to be one with the Sun itself, then the gift of Sunshine may spontaneously arise in us both.
Well it sounds pretty easy to intellectually think, “That person is really a spark of Essence, in spite of their bazooka.” But how do you deeply perceive it?
The most direct and easiest way is to completely and totally give back all that you are to Pure Being. Then it happens spontaneously, effortlessly and continuously.
Um, yeah, I’ll have to try that. But how about a back up plan, just in case that doesn’t really pan out.
For those who insist on doing things the hard way, the gaze of the Heart can be practiced and cultivated. But like all practices, if it is done with tightness and force, it is only reinforcing the old way, the way of insistence and effort and pushing and holding. That is an impure heart insisting on obtaining purity and power to use as it wishes.
So how can you practice it in a pure, untainted way?
Only by gently inviting yourself to explore it when it flows, rather than twisting your own arm to keep practicing it to work towards some spiritual goal you think you need or want. The gaze of the Heart is not a tool to be used to achieve anything, no matter how noble. It is simply True Seeing. Seeing with the Heart of Innocence. Such seeing can never be used by us. It can only be gratefully and humbly received by us.
So if it feels right and if you aren’t doing it out of tightness and if you aren’t forcing yourself and if you aren’t trying to achieve anything and if you aren’t using it and if insert here whatever I forgot to mention, how the hell do you practice it?
There are several ways to gently guide yourself to a place where your inner Heart is gazing at another’s. Essence knowing Essence. Because we tend to live in the mind, it’s sometimes easier at first to start there, with an intellectual understanding of what they really are, and then to sink deeper and deeper into the heart in whatever way works best.
Do you actually practice this around people, or do you do it alone like a kind of meditation practice?
Either one. It can arise when you are looking at or interacting with another person, or when you are alone, beholding someone in your mind and heart. When you do this as a practice by yourself, it can be easier to start with someone you already have strong positive feelings for. Then when you have a strong sense of them as a shimmering spark of Essence itself, move on to someone you feel more neutral about. Then move on to someone you have some negative feelings for, and finally focus on someone you feel strong negative feelings about. This gradual progression comes from Buddhist meditation practices for cultivating compassion.
I still don’t get how I would actually do it.
We’ve already covered a lot of ground today. But if you’re up for it, we could stay with it a bit longer, and I could guide you through how you might explore the gaze of the Heart on your own.
I’m game. But I have to tell you, in high school I was never voted “Most likely to be compassionate.” The idiots.
This should be interesting then. We’ll jump right in with someone you really dislike. It could be a world figure, a personal enemy, a friend who hurt you, a relative, a past love, whomever you choose. So just take a minute and think of someone…
Oh man, do I have someone! Good luck! Maybe we should start with a little kitten or something, and then slowly work our way up, say over the next decade.
It sounds like you’ve picked a good one. Now, there’s no question that you have the ability to prove to me that this was too much for you. Too big a jump. But if you are honestly open to the possibility of exploring a different way of perceiving this person, and possibly becoming more aware of the True Nature within you both, then let’s give it a try.
I’ll be honest. I’m not trying to be deliberately closed or anything, and I really do want to try it. But at the same time, it does feel like it’s too big of a jump. Like maybe I really do need a warm up first.
All right, then let’s do a quick warm up. So, picture a little kitten, playfully scamping about with a ball of yarn, pouncing on it, biting it with its cute little mouth, batting it around with its little paws. Imagine you just brought this kitten home from the pet store and–
–Never! I would never buy a kitten at a pet store! Only at an animal shelter, where there are so many unwanted and deserted pets that if they aren’t adopted into a good, loving home, they might even end up being killed!
Well then, this little kitten is very glad you went to the animal shelter and adopted it.
I couldn’t help it, really. Our eyes met from across the room.
So now you are home with it, watching it play and frolic and puff up and pounce. And while you are watching it, imagine that you can see inside its furry little chest where there is a glowing, pulsing heart of light, shining brightly with the joy and vibrancy the kitten is feeling. Can you picture it?
Yeah. This I can handle.
Now, imagine that you have to leave for a while.
To go hang around the pet store with a sign that says, “Please neuter your pets.” You know, planned pet parenthood is so important these days. Back when I was a kid, pets used to wait until they were at least a year old before becoming sexually active. Now some of them are running around getting pregnant at 6 or 7 months! What’s wrong with this generation? And they don’t even talk things over first to make sure they’re really ready for the responsibility. It’s just a sperm of the moment thing.
Be that as it may, as you are leaving, you tell the kitty that you will be back soon and to be good. Now, the kitten doesn’t understand you very well yet, and when you told it good-bye, it thought you said “You are the cutest kitten in all the world. I am but your servant.” A common mistake among cats. After a while, the kitty looks up from playing with the yarn and realizes you’re not there. You, its surrogate mother, the provider of food and love and comfort, are gone. It suddenly feels scared and alone. It tromps all over the house looking for you. It calls for you with a pitiful little meow, but you’re nowhere to be found.
Poor wittle kitty.
It slips out the door into the garage to see if you’re there. It tries to jump up on a gas can to get a better look around. The can spills over, and gas starts pouring out.
Uh oh.
The kitten is startled and starts to runs out the garage door to the driveway. It slips a little in the gasoline, but gets better traction as it steps on a piece of sand paper that was laying by the can. And as its little claws scratch against the sand paper, it makes a spark.
Double Uh oh.
The kitten runs out of the garage, scared but unharmed. But the spark starts a fire, and your entire house burns down, along with all of your valuables.
Ouch!
Including your precious guitar.
Double ouch! That does it! I’ve lost that loving feline!
What do you feel?
Anger! My guitar! My whole house! I just found out I had one and now it’s gone! I had a bad feeling about that sand paper. I was just too damn lazy to pick it up. But at the same time, I’m wondering if the little kitty is okay. Did it get gasoline on its little paws? Is it lost and starving or is someone taking care of it? I sort of feel both anger at it for the disaster it caused and care for it. I mean, my heart still goes out to it. It was just trying to find me. It was just scared. I don’t want anything bad to happen to it.
So, you are very upset about what it did, but you know that it just felt alone and scared and was desperately trying to find safety and comfort in the best way it knew how. You know that its innocent, glowing heart only wanted to feel okay again. You still feel compassion for it.
Right. Damn it, my new Lambrigini was in that garage!
Okay, we’ll consider that the warm up.
And my helicopters! It was a bigger than average garage.
* * * * * *
Now, back to that person you had in mind earlier.
Oh yeah. I wonder if they would like a harmless little pyro-kitten. On second thought, I couldn’t do that to the kitten. All right, let’s give it a try. So, here’s the deal–
–With the gaze of the Heart, we’re not interested in the deeds the dragon has done. You are already aware of those. They may be terrible. Horrendous. They may be completely unacceptable. I am not disagreeing with that at all. But we want to set all that aside for now.
Speak for yourself.
You can fume over them later if you would like. For now, we only want to look deep within the dragon’s heart, and see what is unveiled. The nineteenth century poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
I keep wanting to say “But if you and Henry only knew…”
It’s so easy to judge other people,–
–I know. That’s what I like about it. Anyway, it’s hard to just put my anger aside. I get what you’re saying– there are other perspectives. It just feels like this one is by far the biggest right now.
Wonderful. Be sure to remember how this feels, and in a few minutes we’ll see if things have changed. In the mean time, you don’t have to lock up those feelings. They are your own guard dragons, wanting to stop that big mean dragon from doing any more harm. They have permission to exist. Just know that there is enough space for them to be here and for us to focus on exploring a different perspective. Shall we begin?
Bring it on.
So, start with a mental image of this person. It makes things more difficult if you picture them doing whatever it is that upset you, so for now just imagine them standing there or sitting there, doing nothing in particular…
Okay.
Now, just be open to the intellectual understanding that their body and their personality are layers of a shell that is covering their Pure Center. That they have forgotten their True Nature, and identified themselves as this shell. That this spark of God is lost, lonely, homesick, confused, delusioned and scared. And to escape from the discomfort of all of that, they have added more layers to their shell to numb them and protect them from their inner pain and longing, so that they usually aren’t even aware of it. But no matter how thick and cold their shell may be, beneath it, they are still a spark of Pure Light. Just take a moment to really realize that intellectually…
Okay. I got it. I don’t like it, but I got it.
Good. Now let yourself visualize this truth in whatever way feels most powerful for you. You could picture their heart glowing with a radiant light, like the kitten’s. You could see them as the Light beings in the movie “Cocoon”, who wore human skin as a disguise. Just beneath this person’s skin is a glowing being of Light. But they put on their costume so long ago, they’ve long forgotten their radiant True Nature. Or you could imagine this person as a big mean dragon, and deep within their thick skin is an innocent child. The child they were long ago, before life got so hard and their skins became so thick. Or maybe in the center of this dragon’s heart is a pure, translucent pearl or diamond, glowing with the Pure Living Sunlight that is endlessly emanating from its center. Or maybe their shell is a thick iceberg, and in the center is a pure flame. Or a dazzling green emerald. Or you could visualize them as being a pure ray of the sun, coming here to shine. But maybe on their way to this world they got intertwined with a comet, and now they are trapped within its ice. Use whatever image or images you want, as long as you get a strong sense of the situation…
I guess I have one that seems okay.
Good. So just let yourself relax and let go a little bit. Take a deep breath… And now just let this image gently fall into your heart… So that it’s not just an image, but it’s also a felt sense deep within. A knowingness that the way you are seeing them now is more true than the way you were seeing them before. Just let yourself sink into your heart a little more. Resting there… Letting this image just softly, gently and effortlessly open up and come to life deep inside… And just imagine their outer shell is dissolving away, revealing a lost, homesick and confused spark of Pure Being… Let your awareness gaze on that image while simply resting in your heart. And allow simple compassion to naturally arise, just as it did when that innocent kitten felt so scared and alone…
Yeah, I can kind of feel it a little.
Good. And now let yourself gently remember times in your own life when you’ve made selfish, immature, hurtful, inappropriate choices… Remember how later you looked back with more clarity and felt regret for the pain you caused, hoping those you hurt would heal, and that they could find a way to forgive you. And hoping you would be able to forgive yourself… Sometimes this clarity arises in someone moments afterwards. Sometimes it takes eons. But that moment always comes.
Sounds like a kind of karma. When you hurt someone else, sooner or later you’ll feel it yourself?
Yes. But it isn’t a cold, detached, All Pervading Karmic Law of Hard Justice. It’s the tender, heart-piercing karma of Clear Seeing. As the heart becomes more and more open and soft and tender, it cannot help but feel the pain of the hardness it once was and the damage it caused. It isn’t punitive. It is the healing, Grace-filled karma of a melting heart.
So, let yourself imagine that future time in which their heart will wash clean with genuine sorrow… And let your heart open to this lost soul, whose confusion has been causing suffering to themselves and others. The second century Buddhist monk, Aryadeva, said “Buddhas see the delusion as the enemy, and not the childish who possess it.”
Just let yourself feel in your heart the truth that both of you are longing for Home and safety and love and peace, even if you have both mostly buried this longing beneath thick, numbing skins. You are both trying to stay afloat in the rough and disorienting waters of life. You are each a spark of the One Flame. You are kindred souls. Once, long ago, you both stood at the Rainbow Gateway, deciding to come explore these worlds. Maybe once or twice you have gotten yourself into a bind, and this Light being has given you a hand. Who knows? And maybe once or twice you have done the same for them. Can you feel in your heart a sense of compassion, and even kinship, with this being of Light? Can you feel how you are in the same boat, on the same journey, with the same buried longing for Love and Truth and Home? Even if your responses in this world have been vastly different?
Yeah, I can, surprisingly enough. It’s not that strong, but it’s there. It’s like if a kitten is scared, they may hiss and puff up and growl and scratch at you. But inside their heart they’re just scared, and not sure what to do. They’re just trying to feel safe, to protect themselves. And that’s what school yard bullies do too, you know? And I guess big, mean, ugly dragons are doing the same thing. I mean, a cobra is probably really scared when it’s about to strike. So it’s like this person has such a thick shell, it’s dark in there, and they can’t really see very clearly. It’s like they’re doing the best they can given how hard life is and how they learned to live it.
Exactly. And now imagine their layers of confusion and homesickness dissolving away, so that what is unveiled is a pure, brilliant spark of Essence, joyfully shimmering with Love and Light. A drop of Pure Ocean, experientially separated from the Infinite Ocean by only the thinnest of membranes. This being is bathed in the love, safety, peace and joy that is its True Self. Can you sense this spark resting in the One Flame? Can you sense this soul resting in the Heart of God? Completely quenched, completely whole, completely at peace?
Yeah. I actually feel happy for them. That’s amazing.
Wonderful. Now let your heart sense that final thinnest of membranes momentarily dissolving, so that this droplet of water completely merges with the One Ocean. Let yourself feel that soul melting fully and again becoming one with the Heart of God. That ray of the Sun melting back into its Pure Center. So that now there is only boundaryless Oneness celebrating Oneness. Beingness resting in Beingness. Beyond contentment. Beyond bliss. Beyond peace. The place no structure can enter. No words can describe. No mind can grasp. The place of Pure No-thingness. The place of What is Left. This place cannot be grasped or imagined or held. But can you sense towards it? Can your heart have fleeting moments of intuiting it? Of experiencing the subtle Presence of it?
I’m not sure. I definitely feel something really subtle and energized in my chest. I don’t think I can really describe it. It’s kind of calm and sure and peaceful instead of ecstatic and excited. But that calmness makes it really subtle, and I can’t really tell what it is. And my mind says, yeah, right, I’m just imagining it. But then it seems like maybe my heart is kind of calmly saying, no, I can feel it. It’s real. And it feels like my belly might be saying, “Man, I could really go for some pizza.” Anyway, whatever this feeling in my chest is, around it is this feeling of happiness for them. I’m glad they’re at peace.
Wonderful. And now, while continuing to have a sense of them as being merged into Oneness, allow the thin membrane to return, so that there is again the individual spark, the soul, resting within that Oneness.
Okay.
Now, while still sensing the True Nature of this Light being, allow yourself to simultaneously have an image of that person. So that you are seeing both their Pure Essence and their shell at the same time. Being aware of them as a human being, while simultaneously being aware of their Pure Self. And it’s not as though their soul is good and their humanness is bad. Their personality is just the way their soul lives, the best that it can, without awareness of itself. It is the unconscious soul. And as such it deserves compassion and appreciation. Can you sense that?
Yeah. That feels true.
Wonderful! And finally, imagine that their Essence, a Pure Ray of the One Sun, is shining outward from within their physical body, bathing it and all that is around it with the brilliant Light of Pure Being. So that to look at them is to see a spark of God. To be in their presence is to be in the Presence of God. To love them is to love God. To open your heart to them is to open it to God. This is seeing them with the Heart of Innocence. This is the gaze of the Heart.
Wow. Talk about seeing someone in a new light! I mean, it’s not all that strong, and my mind is kind of active and skeptical, but still, I can definitely sense it. I actually feel compassion for them! Just like that kitten! And this is really weird, but as I picture them as a pure being of Light, I actually feel a kind of respect for them. Almost like– like reverence. Yeah, like reverence! I mean, they are a spark of God! This is wild!
Wonderful! The sixteenth century Indian saint, Dadu, wrote “In every man is the one Spirit; hold Him therefore in reverent respect. Recognize that Spirit in yourself and others; it is the manifestation of the Lord.” And listen to William Blake: “God appears, and God is Light to those poor souls who dwell in night; But doth a human form display to those who dwell in realms of day.” This reverence you feel is your own Pure Essence recognizing Pure Essence in another. In the Hindu tradition, there is a greeting: Namaste.
Nom oss tay?
It’s spelled N-a-m-a-s-t-e. Namaste. It means the Divine in me greets the Divine in you. The spark of God within me recognizes the spark of God within you. Essence recognizing Essence. Pure Being seeing itself. There is a spontaneous sense of reverence, grace, humility and gratefulness when you realize you are beholding a precious spark of God. A unique face of the Divine.
So it may be interesting to notice how your feelings towards this person might be different in the coming weeks. There may still be strong feelings about what they have done, but you will not view this person the same again.
Yeah, it already feels different. I guess it takes two to tango. And only one to bow.
Ahh, but a true bow requires no one at all! In the eighth century, Li Po wrote “We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.”
What, he got eaten by a tiger or something?
Exactly! By the Tiger of Truth! No wonder so many people choose instead to run away! Or to wear heavy armor that keeps away this magnificent, terrifying, ferocious beast, that ends the life they have been trying so hard to arrange just so! But they needn’t be concerned. This tiger only goes where it has truly been invited.
Now, when we behold another with the gaze of the Heart, their spark may begin to awaken, resonate and glow, and the frozen layers of their shell may begin to melt, even if just a little. But as I’ve said, that isn’t a pure reason to practice it. If we actually held the power to strip away the defenses of others, would it be our place to do so? To change others based on our ideas of how they should be, without their consent?
Sounds great. As long as I’m the one holding the magic wand.
But fortunately, we don’t hold this power. The need to change others or ourselves holds within it a tightness. Tightness cannot melt tightness. Effort cannot melt effort. Ice cannot melt ice. But the Heart of Innocence has no need for anything to change. Because of its own Absolute Openness, Unwavering Acceptance, and Unconditional Love, it cannot help but recognize and love and fall into the Original Innocence in all that it sees. And it is exactly because it so completely opens and flows into all that is, just as it is, that it can be so healing. We’ll go into this more in the next couple of weeks.
So, don’t hold onto making yourself do this practice because it sounds like a good idea. But let yourself be completely open and willing to honor any deeper call to explore it that might arise. Such a call wouldn’t come from a place of insisting on trying to change what is. But from an innocent inner longing to see the Real everywhere it has been hiding. Even in its most convincing costumes. And if the Light in another person’s heart happens to resonate in recognition of Essence seeing Essence, and if it begins to shine and pulsate and melt some of their layers, so be it. And if not, so be it. Your only interest is a gentle, authentic intent for the Purest Truth to be unveiled. And when you are fortunate enough for that to happen as your heart gazes upon another, you are given the gift of beholding a precious spark of the Divine. And then, says our Sufi friend, Hamid al-Ghazali, “The meaning of the words ‘All things perish except for His face’ is known by experience.” Hafiz said:
My eyes can no longer hide
The wondrous fact of who you really are.
The Beautiful One whom I adore
Has pitched His royal tent inside of you,
So I will always lean my heart
As close to your soul as I can.
* * * * * *
You know, when you talk about someone’s inner heart waking up and glowing and resonating with your own, it kind of reminds me of E.T. He didn’t have any signs of life, and everyone thought he was dead. Then when the space ship came back for him, he sensed their presence and his heart light started glowing again.
Yes, it’s very much like that. The True Life seems gone in us, but when our Inner Heart senses the presence of its own kind, it awakens and resonates and shines again. And then True Life returns.
E.T. was an explorer, an investigator. He chose to come and explore this world, with other kindred beings. But soon he found himself trapped here, unable to go home. He was lost and alone in a scary world, where hearts do not glow. He spent some time getting to know this new world. But he couldn’t ignore the growing longing within him for his true home. So he sent a desperate plea for help, asking his kindred beings to save him from this lonely world, asking that they help him return to where he truly belonged. He didn’t know if anyone heard, and he didn’t know if help would come. And as the days passed, he felt more alone, more lost and more desperate. The glow in his heart was fading. And he began to whither. Soon, all trace of Life was gone in him. There was only a cold, gray lifeless shell.
But his kindred beings had heard his plea. They pulsed their heart lights towards him. And even though they were far away, his heart faintly glowed in resonance. They had not forgotten him, and they would help him return home. And as E.T.’s heart began to glow with Life again, it thawed the stiff and frozen shell he seemed to have become.
His kindred beings could not go to where he was, but they were pulsating their heart lights, guiding him to where they would be waiting, at the place he first entered this world. E.T. knew this was his best and maybe only chance to go home. Despite his fear, despite the many obstacles in his way, he went forward with single-hearted intention. This was his one desire. And for it, he was willing to leave behind everything of this world. He felt the distant doorway opening for him, and he was determined to reach it. When he came across seemingly insurmountable obstacles, his inextinguishable resolve allowed him to rise above them. Literally! He gave himself completely to the Light pulsing in his heart, and nothing could stop him. When all obstacles had been overcome, and when he had left behind all things of this world, he finally came to the place where his heart had guided him. And there the doorway was open and ready, his kindred beings awaiting his return.
As he stood before this doorway, there was one last attachment holding him back. Something beautiful of this world, that he did not want to leave behind. It was his true friend, Elliot, who had helped him with his quest for home even though it meant losing someone he deeply loved. E.T. looked at the open doorway. Then he looked at Elliot. The boy’s heart was so pure, so bright, its glow could not be fully hidden by the thick skin of a human. They stood there for a moment, kindred beings, each sensing the heart of the other, feeling the deep pain of separation and the profound gratefulness for true friendship. In that timeless moment, their hearts were one. And then E.T. turned towards the doorway, and walked through. On the other side, his kindred beings greeted him, their hearts glowing in celebration. Then they took E.T. back to his true home, to a place where every heart is made of pure light.
So, my friend, until Monday, namaste.
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